Grex Micros Conference

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Grex Micros Item 66: Compton's MultiMedia thinks they OWN the rights to multimedia?!
Entered by bdp on Thu Nov 18 02:41:19 UTC 1993:

I just saw the most absurd thing on CNN.  At COMDEX, Compton's Multimedia
told an audience of other companies that they are pursuing a patent on the
idea of "multimedia."  To me, this sounds like trying to patent the wheel.
They claim they had the first "comprehensive multimedia system" in 1989.  
Bahahahaha... this should be interesting to watch, that's for sure.  Of 
course, it seems like none of the other companies agree with them...

They said that they were interested in setting a system up like Dolby's 
noise reduction system found on tape players - a company releasing a 
multimedia program would pay a small royalty to Compton's.  hahahaha...
I just can't believe how ridiculous this is. :)

any thoughts?

4 responses total.

#1 of 4 by drm on Thu Nov 18 04:56:33 1993:

I'm not a lawyer but I hope the patent office laughs them out.  The idea of 
patenting multimedia since I don't think ane one person or group invented it.
             seems  ^ absurd
Lets hope they don't succeed.  World Book, Brittanica, and all the others 
should fight it tooth and nail.

#2 of 4 by srw on Thu Nov 18 06:39:55 1993:

The scary thing is that the patent office has allowed a lot of patents
that in my opinion it should not have. I was out of town for 
Richard Stallman's talk on just this subject.

#3 of 4 by jdg on Sat Nov 20 04:20:13 1993:

According to NPR, the patent office had already issued an *exclusive* to
them on the seek and retrieve cd-rom technology, and that it was *sure*
to be contested.

#4 of 4 by tsty on Fri Dec 10 05:29:52 1993:

oh, great!

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